“Family” Archive
Jun
28
Thanks to everyone who has stuck around over the past few days as I have spent quality time with my family. My daughter’s third birthday was a smashing success and we had a great 4 days together doing all kinds of fun things here in Seattle. My employer provides a plethora of discounts on local attractions, including most of the kid-friendly venues, so costs were kept to a minimum. Thanks to everyone who posted a comment for your kind birthday wishes.
On the monetization front, my appeal to Google regarding my AdSense account was turned down. So, along with my AdSense account went nearly $1,000 in advertising revenues. Oh well! The good news is that YPN - Yahoo Publisher Network has approved me for their beta so I should be able to monetize the site that way. I never intended to get rich by blogging about my situation so no big deal, no matter what happens. I will continue to blog about my journey and take things from there.
I’m pretty exhausted today after getting back to the grind, so look for some fresh content tomorrow, including a new poll. My Feedburner stats have been as high as the mid 90s and now I find myself back in the 60s so it looks like there is some built up demand for some new postings.
Jun
12
I think my biggest issue right now is that I feel like a complete failure. I did things during my marriage, both financially and non-financial to cause my marriage to end, so I failed as a husband, as a life partner. I also feel like a failure as a father. Due to the distance and expense, I only see my daughter once a month at best, and even then it is usually for 2-3 days. This debt is like a huge ball and chain and I cannot support my daughter the way I would like. I can barely meet my child support obligations. I just feel like I have let my daughter down tremendously by putting myself in the situation I am in. She is too young to understand things, this is true, but it doesn’t change the fact that I have tremendous guilt and shame about all of this. It is the guilt, shame and seeming inability to control it all, that has my head spinning these days. I know ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ but it is difficult to see any light at the end of the tunnel. The math just doesn’t work. Maybe I should have put a donation button up after all in case some ‘angel investor’ came my way. Ah, wishful thinking I know but it made me feel better for a second.
May
7
With Mother’s Day rapidly approaching–this Sunday in case you forgot to get a card–what better time to take time out and talk to your kids about money. Yes, celebrate the day by making mom, grandma or stepmom as special as she can be, but why not take advantage of the “family time” and talk money with your kids. For many, this conversation is about as appealing as talking to your kids about the “birds and the bees”, but I assure you it will be time well spent. I can’t recall my folks EVER talking to me about money, saving, credit cards or any of those things. This DOES NOT mean I blame them for my financial woes, it just means that we didn’t talk about it. In case you absolutely no idea about how to talk to your kids about money, here are some good resources (in my opinion):
- MyVesta.com has a good information packet on how to talk to your kids about money, with specific advice for different age groups
- Money Magazine has an excellent series of lessons on Kids and Money, including Saving and Spending and Allowances
- Janet Bodnar at Kiplingers.com writes a column called Money Smart Kids. The archive has links to some fantastic articles with hands-on suggestions designed to introduce kids to the financial world
- Marketwatch.com has a great listing of useful financial education websites for kids of varying ages
- Forbes.com has Seven Tips to Teach Your Child About Money
Of course, your bank/credit union website is also very likely to have a section on financial education for kids. Many companies, including Washington Mutual, have programs in place to work with teachers and schools to offer hand-on, age appropriate classes in personal finance. For all you teachers out there, this might be of particular interest!
I think the most important lesson to teach your children about money is that it doesn’t grow on trees and that saving needs to become a habit, even at an early age. That will be one habit you can only hope your children pick up!
Apr
25
I’ll apologize in advance for this very long post, but I think it is one you will find interesting and hopefully it will inspire folks to have frank and honest discussions with their spouse or potential spouse about debt. I’m a living example that debt, particularly hidden debt, can, in part, ruin a marriage.
I realize many of you are probably wondering, how did things get so bad? How did you get yourself so far into the hole? Well, in this post I will try and provide a Cliffs Notes version of how I now find myself in this situation. Read more
Apr
16
I’m writing this as I sit in an airport in the ‘Great Wilderness’ known as Alaska; I’m on the way back from spending a long weekend with my daughter. We had an absolutely wonderful time together painting, exercising, playing children’s video games, reading, listening to folk music (there was an excellent Folk Music festival up here this weekend) and most of all talking. My daughter will be three years old in less than two months and she has an absolutely amazing vocabulary. Kids often have a funny, albeit very amazing way to put things into perspective for you (in case your perspective was in question). Although I have known long before this weekend that I own many things that I wanted and more than enough things that I need, my daughter in her infinite cuteness made the fact that I have to do whatever is necessary to get myself out of this mountain of debt I now find myself. Moreover, even though I have made some significant downshifts to my lifestyle, I still need to examine ways to trim and leave more frugally. I want to make absolutely certain that I have the means to provide her with the things that will make her successful in life, most importantly access to the best possible education. Increasingly this means private school over public school and as we all know private school isn’t cheap.
When I get home, I’m going to assemble all of my credit cards debts and post them, as promised on this blog. In addition, this week I will be presenting a series on negotiating with your creditors in real-time. When I say ‘real-time”, I mean in the sense that I will be negotiating with my creditors this week using a variety of methods, some of which will ultimately be successful while others may not. What I hope to do is show folks that you CAN negotiate with your creditors while avoiding bankruptcy or credit counseling. Fortunately, my employer provides me with a Group Legal plan that will also afford me an opportunity to utilize a lawyer in my negotiations if necessary. Stay tuned all this week for what I hope are some good results. I owe it to myself and my daughter’s future to pull out all the stops.
For those of you who have kids, give them a big hug and remember think of their futures before you go out and spend another dime on a credit card.
